So very tired

Taking advantage of some cheap airfares, Kristy and I enjoyed a lovely long weekend in Florida this weekend (I’ll put up a post complete with photos sometime in the near future). But our weekend ended on a slightly sour note, with the airline calling us during Sunday lunch to say that our flight had been cancelled. And, instead of our original Fort Lauderdale – La Guardia trip, they were re-routing us from the much more inconvenient Miami to JFK.

I felt terrible for cousin Natalie who drove us all the way to Miami instead, but the problems only got worse when we got to the airport. We arrived at about 4:15 PM for our 5:55 PM flight (at least 1.5 hours early since September 11 ), so we had been there for just over an hour when it came time to board. But instead of boarding, we were told the plane was on a 1 hour delay due to bad weather in Manhattan.

1 hour quickly became 3 hours, and then the pilot came over the PA to announce that the airports in Manhattan were closed. About half an hour later, the flight crew “went illegal” as they had already worked a 14 hour day, and they had to be sent home. So, now we were stuck at the airport, with no estimated departure time, and no flight crew.

Thankfully, a replacement crew was found, and our estimated departure time was announced – 10 PM. This of course came and went, and only half the replacement crew had turned up. Finally by 10:30 PM, the entire flight crew had arrived, and we boarded the plane. We were in the air by about 10:50 PM.

No sleep on the plane (and no blanket either!) meant we were pretty shattered when we got to JFK at 1:30 AM. Instead of a $20 cab fare back to Manhattan from La Guardia, we were were looking at $55 from JFK – and unfortunately we couldn’t find anyone to split with. But finally, at 2:30 AM, we were home and in bed.

Needless to say, I’m absolutely shattered this morning. The lesson to be learned? Well, actually I can’t really see one.